The chief medical officer for England has warned “a lot more people will die” if the government lifts lockdown restrictions too soon. Chris Whitty told MPs on Tuesday (March 9) that despite the vaccine roll-out he expected a “significant” and “substantial” surge in Covid infections given there is “nothing to suggest the virus is going […]
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Health secretary Mat Hancock has hailed the effectiveness of Covid-19 vaccines which reduces the risk of illness and hospitalisation in older adults by up to 80%. Data released by the government has shown that a single dose of the AstraZeneca or Pfizer vaccine significantly cuts the likelihood of people aged over 70 becoming seriously ill. […]
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Boris Johnson has laid out England’s exit from lockdown, declaring “the end is in sight” on the day the UK passed 129,498 deaths of people with Covid-19. The prime minister’s “cautious but also irreversible” road map out of lockdown is, he hopes, a “one way road to freedom” where even nightclubs could be open on […]
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Matt Hancock’s blueprint to reform the NHS, better integrate social care and “do away with irksome bureaucracy” will also hand greater power over the NHS to ministers. Conservatives have broadly welcomed Hancock’s shakeup to the health service, laid out today, while Labour has been questioning the health secretary’s priorities and timing given the UK is […]
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Travellers who arrive in the UK and fail to follow new rules to contain the coronavirus will face £10,000 fines and 10 years in prison, the health secretary has told the Commons. Matt Hancock said people arriving from 33 countries on the government’s “red list” will have to pay £1,750 to quarantine for 10 days […]
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The coronavirus rate of infection in the UK is back below 1, figures released today reveal, confirming the epidemic is finally shrinking, a month into England’s third lockdown. Boris Johnson is set to publish the government’s roadmap for lifting the lockdown restrictions in England on February 22, as data confirmed a decrease in positive coronavirus […]
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Matt Hancock has said the UK must “come down hard” on the South African coronavirus variant after community cases were found in eight areas across England. “Surge testing” will be carried out in the eight postcodes where a total of 105 cases of the SA variant – called 501Y.V2 – have been identified. Worryingly, 11 […]
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The government has been warned by a member of its Sage panel of experts, that lifting lockdown next month would be a “disaster” that puts the “NHS under enormous pressure again.” Prof John Edmunds also said that the highly infectious Covid variant detected in Manaus, Brazil is probably already in the UK, although no cases […]
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A single day of questions at Westminster for the prime minister has provided a glimpse of the extent and range of immediate challenges and crises that Boris Johnson has been entrusted to lead the country through. A double bill for Johnson began with PMQs and was followed by an appearance before the House of Commons […]
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The British Medical Association is calling for health care workers to be vaccinated “immediately” in order to protect patients and the NHS while raising alarm about the impact the pandemic is having on doctors well being. Helena McKeown, chair of the representative body of the BMA told Times Radio today: “We must protect the current […]
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